Hi everyone!

Been a while since I have posted, but I have been lurking. Glad to see all the winter starters doing such a wonderful job! I'm still losing, slowly but surely...probably because I'm getting closer to my goal...Hoping to reach my 60lb loss 4th of July and then the last 10lbs by mid-August. Wish me luck!!

I love reading all the posts, keeps me in check to make sure I stay on plan :) Have a great weekend everyone!

That's great, and remember- slow and steady wins the race!:) even when I start thinking that it's slow, I remember all of my dieting and how painfully slow it really was.....46 lbs was more like 8 months to do...and here I am at just over 4 months. Wishing you all kinds of luck!!!! You got this, and I'll bet you will be a beautiful bride!

Scale at home said I lost 3 lbs, official WI was down 1.2 this week.
Was hoping for more since I was sick last week and this week but beggars can't be choosers.
Hot Hot Hot in Edmonton today!
Have a great weekend.

Glad you're feeling better Sunflower40. My WI at the clinic is consistently 3-4 pounds more than what my home scale shows. I go by what my scale says since that is the one I will be using from now on. I've been sick with bronchitis for about 2.5 weeks now but am finally beginning to have hope that it's over. I was taking a lot of meds and I think that was reflected a bit in my last WI. I still say as long as it is a loss instead of a gain, it's a win!!

Thanks Frawnie. I was on antibiotics for 7 days, ended up with an infection. They gave me cough syrup but I only took it once since it was too sweet. The Pharmacist said it had very little sugar, but I beg to differ.
Plus during that time my throat was so sore I barely ate any veggies, I made lots of soup. But yes I was overjoyed when I saw my home scale drop so much since I never lose more than a lb a week.

I'm just happy it's going down rather than up. Only 13.2 until goal, then I get a personal trainer to tone up and hopefully lose more inches.

Glad you are still doing well hzl :)

Frawnie - sorry you've been so ill but glad you are coming out of it - anything upper respiratory is horrible. I caught a horrible cold in March, was on antibiotics and being IP was tough. :broc: on getting through!

The Legwarmers Friday was awesome and we travelled again this weekend - this time for hubby's family reunion. It was nice to see his cousins and the state park it was at was beautiful! It was in a very rural area of southern Virginia though and while I packed - or thought I'd packed carefully (food wise) - plans changed and we ended up down there longer than anticipated.
I also hit the "IP wall" again - hard! :( Scared hubby a little bit Saturday afternoon - but we'd danced like crazy Friday night (11K steps) and Saturday was tons of walking and paddle boating. I was eating - had an RTD for breakfast and lunch was burger with cheese, lettuce/tomato with a drizzle of mustard, and a hot dog…but it wasn't enough & everything else was sugar / carb. Thankfully there was a nice grocery store in town with a deli / rotisserie chicken and bag of fresh broccoli. Ate the dark meat until I was really full and it made all the difference in the world.
So, while not 100% compliant, I stayed low carb and willpower won out again over campfire s'mores :)
All the compliments I got on the weight loss were nice too…
It was also the first year a lot of the cousins got to spend time together (it was a small reunion) so we made new friends too :)

So glad to hear you had a great weekend and that your willpower won out!!! You are a power of example you know!! The compliments must have made you feel like a million bucks!!!
I am hopeful we'll be going over to Marthas Vineyard on our boat for the holiday weekend- THERE - that place, lies SO many temptations for me- a place called Back Door Donuts that opens at 7PM and serves fresh, warm amazing donuts, the ice cream place that has Blood Orange Gelato to die for, the fried clam shack not far from there, oh and then there is the homemade fudge place. We usually go for 10 days in August, and I figured, that I would allow myself a bite, no more, just a bite- to be savored of a donut- it may be tough to abstain this trip- but I thought in August, I would be so much closer to my goal, and hopefully will have not "cheated" still- so I am a little worried. There is a LOT of walking while we are over there, but also a lot of relaxing. I may be worried for naught- the weather may be lousy and we won't even go-
Frawnie SO very glad to hear you're finally starting to feel better!!!
Happy Monday Everyone!! Wishing everyone great success this week!!:carrot:

I hope the weather ISN'T lousy and you go! I used to vacation in Woods Hole when I lived in Massachusetts, and I pine for it every summer. I know how you feel about all that food, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
And I think it's a great idea to allow yourself a bite of a donut, but I suggest it's the last bite of someone's donut so there isn't any more for you to steal afterwards. ;) (And washing it down with a lot of water will help keep you from craving it afterwards!)

The area is actually my favorite when it's overcast and slightly drizzly. God, I miss it just thinking about it...




My weigh in last week wasn't great again, lost only 1 pound as I was visiting family and my eating was all out of its normal schedule. I know it was probably due to water retention and figured the scale would make up for it this week. And boy, did it! Had a whoosh overnight that brought me down 5.2 lbs this week! I have a headache and I'm STARVING as a result, but lunch is in 90 minutes and I'll feel much better then. :D

I have now lost over 50 pounds. I'm just 6 pounds away from onederland.
And I reached another goal of mine- I am now at the exact weight I was two years ago when I fell off the IP wagon. But this time I'm going to keep on going! :carrot:

I have lost inches for sure and on week three of no weight loss so I will keep plugging away. I have about 10 lbs to loose to get to maintenance so understandable it could be slower now. Thanks for the info. Made me rethink 😀

I like the resetting and redristributing idea. Makes sense to me and I have to just look at the inches I have lost and keep on going and not give up. Seems like when I get close to my goal weight I think I should be I stall and give up. Weight comes back on and it is just a vicious circle. Thanks for the good advice. I will keep going and just be patient lol

Hello ladies,

It has been a while since I posted but I am feeling great. I have been slowing down on the exercise as I believe it was slowing down my weight loss. I went from losing 2lb a week to 0.5 to no lbs. Since I stopped I am back losing 2lb steady.

I also have been eating a lot of egg whites, I follow the Ideal Protein forum on facebook and some coaches said after the last conference in the US it has been announced its an unlimited item. Anybody else heard about it? I have been eating eggwhite omeletes when I am super hungry and it has been a god send. It hasn't affected my weight loss at all. Anybody else with similar experience?

I hope you guys are steady and strong. We made this far ladies, we can do it!

Interesting plan, I can see that working for gals that have the 'hangries' still after the first month or so. Here's a bit why from a study on PubMed.

"The reason why protein does not increase blood glucose levels is unclear. Several possibilities might explain the response: a slow conversion of protein to glucose, less protein being converted to glucose and released than previously thought, glucose from protein being incorporated into hepatic glycogen stores but not increasing the rate of hepatic glucose release, or because the process of gluconeogenesis from protein occurs over a period of hours and glucose can be disposed of if presented for utilization slowly and evenly over a long time period."

So technically it could help blunt the hunger for a longer period of time than the unlimited veggies. I do think calling it 'unlimited' might be an invitation to abuse though, with some eating very large quantities of it and wondering why they aren't losing as much as expected.

Good work dickinsp! :carrot:

Liana

Unlimited egg whites...VERY interesting...and Liana - the follow up about protein not increasing glucose...doesn't that fly in the face of the current conventional thought - ie, too much protein will / can become glucose?
I think about this quite a bit as I've lost more weight...most days I am still hitting 120+g of protein and it's not / hasn't hindered my WL (knock on wood)...but again, conventional ideas say I should be around 85 - 100g protein (1/2 body weight, right?)...food for thought, that's for sure :cool:

Destony - thanks :o Martha's Vineyard sounds AMAZING! I went there once, 25 years ago - it is beautiful and hope to make it that way again. My $0.02 on the food...I could be wrong, but it sounds like there were / are a lot of activities done around various restaurants / food stands...maybe this summer would be a great time to make new habits that are not centered around the foods? Not saying to not take the last bite of that doughnut - Shark has some good tips :) - but I would also say to you this is a yearly trip which means it would just be one year without that bite...

I sometimes add eggwhites to the IP/alts omelets and they keep me from having the mid morning hungries. And an occasional boiled egg in the mid afternoon has certainly kept me going until suppertime, as well. Not sure I will ever look at them as "unlimited" because everything adds up after awhile! But knowing that they don't "count" will give me another tool to stave off cravings.

I've only had the opportunity to visit the East coast once (girl Scout trip to Savannah and Tybee island). It was really nice but I was so concerned with the girls enjoying the trip that I didn't really take time for my own enjoyment. Maybe another trip should be planned; just me and hubbie this time! There is so much to see in this great country of ours!

As far as "cheating" goes while on vacation, I allowed myself a teensy bite of fresh pecan pie in Pietown NM while hubbie ate the rest, 2 fresh tortilla chips at that great little Mexican place in Ft Stockton TX, and one smear of real butter on a slice of "fresh out of the oven" multigrain bread at that quaint B&B in Bluff UT. Over that 2 wk roadtrip I lost almost 10 pounds but there was a lot of raw broccoli and cauliflower in between those little bites of heaven! I looked at that "cheating" as taking small bites of the real world I in which will be living and eating in a few months. Practicing that will power muscle does not always require an absolute NO to a few foods. I know I will have to be careful from now on in the amount and types of food I put into my mouth. I don't do it often but when I do take one of those "cheat" bites, I count it as an extra for that day.

Hello, everyone! I returned from my 10 day cruise on Saturday and am happy to report that I stayed OP for almost the entire trip (had a little slip up one night -- wasn't thinking and decided I wasn't going to let it get me down; the next day was a new day and new beginning!). I was able to take my IP packets and pre-made IP muffins with no problems. I drank all my water but struggled getting in my veggies, but did okay.

I had my weigh in today and lost 5.4 pounds. I consider that a huge success, but I'm looking forward to seeing how well I'll do now that I'm in home and charge of the cooking once more.